#and that's saying something given the super strong episodes in season 1.

[irradiatedsnakes]

yknow besides a higher-stakes-but-still-very-silly plot always being a lot of fun, night of the living pharmacists has some of the tightest writing + jokes + animation of the whole show. it's an unbearably good episode

[showsandstuff]

Am I the only one who is disappointed with Caitvi in season two? When I watched the first season I had the biggest caitvi brain rot because they actually gave me SUCH a fun dynamic with them. Buddy cop Caitvi was hilarious, I loved that so so much!

And season 2 started of strong imo but then it rushed through everything. I loved the scene in the cell, obviously, but it was misplaced. Your sister is about to kill herself girl what are you doing this is not the time!! And other than romantic and sexual tension there wasn't all that much left of their previous dynamic aside from the brief scene in episode six...

Idk, I think I'm just annoyed. Usually when I see a non canon gay ship get more traction than the Canon lesbian couple, I just assume it's misogyny or lesbophobia, and move on with my life. But I can't even do that here because Caitvi was WAY more popular in season 1 (as they should).

Jayvik isn't getting somewhat more popular in season 2 because people don't like lesbians, but because their arcs are connected so strongly to each other. (Also I'm not saying that Jayvik is now more popular than Caitvi, but it's like a graph where the super high stocks caitvi are still even while Jayvik is skyrocketing rn)

Wanna know why Jayvik wasn't all that popular in season 1? Because (after act 1) their arcs were mostly separate, safe for a couple of moments. Viktor worked on his body and Jayce was doing politics.

Caitlyn and Vis arcs intertwined more, they actually did shit together and it was beautiful, funny, romantic, EVERYTHING!

Also a fun opposites attract buddy cop dynamic is also just more fun than men who do science together (in my personal opinion)

Now let's look at Caitlyn and Vis relationship in season two.

It starts of strong. I momentarily thought that Caitlyn was uncharacteristically mean to Vi when she refused to become an enforcer, but she apologized for it later and I recognized the fact that Caitlyn was grieving. Then once we get to episode two and three I could already feel their relationship being a bit more odd. The kiss (though I cheered) didn't feel right. I felt like something was missing, and that was their chemistry from season one. Also I feel like we glossed over too many decisions that Caitlyn made, and I think Vi should've put a stop to it sooner. But overall I was okay with them in act 1.

Then we had a timeskip and the two were fully separated. Act 2 literally started with Caitlyn in bed with another woman, like we can see they're not together anymore. Caitlyn has obviously changed, there is not much of the sweet cupcake left that we had come to love in season 1, and Vi is boxing and getting drunk.

Then they meet and like... Vi calls Cait cupcake, and Cait switches sides IMMEDIATELY? GIRL WTF?!

I get that Caitlyn wasn't entirely on Ambessas side the entire time, but I had hoped for more drama first. So you're telling me the very next interaction the two have after their heart wrenching falling out is them making up again? Come on.

Then we had act 3 and overall it was better I think but the timing of their hot scene in the cell was just odd, like what about your sister about to kill herself? I was very happy and hyped in the moment but then I realized how rushed this was. Why? Why make em fuck right here? And in the final act, the two weren't together because again, their arcs were not as connected. And that's actually pretty cool to have a couple who do their own things! But it doesn't help their relationship when they, in turn, aren't given enough time to develop as a pair!

I feel like season 1 did this incredible job of setting these characters up, showing us why they work so well together and why they would fall for one another. And season 2 gave us pay off for it but with very little set up, which was needed because of how Cait changed throughout the season. I don't mention Vi here because she did not change. She had her drunk boxing phase, which we got nothing but a montage off, but everything else is basically season 1 Vi aside from very few things here and there. Like her becoming an enforcer wasn't a character change for Vi, her finally letting go of powder and calling her sister Jinx, wasn't a big character moment for Vi, they were pay off for a set up we didn't get enough of.

SO TO GET TO MY POINT:

S2 was rushed. We should've AT LEAST gotten 3 seasons, like minimum, because there was a whole lot of plot and very little moments in between for characterization. Especially for Caitlyn and Vi and their relationship to each other.

I still generally prefer Caitvi to Jayvik, but only because of season 1. Season 2 gave me the two things I wanted most (a sexy scene and a kiss) but forgot to give me the things that made me fall in love with this ship in the first place.

Which was the hilarious buddy cop dynamic of rich girl cop Cait, and broke butch prisoner Vi.

[multimousefanatic]

The most frustrating thing about Miraculous is that they will set up super intriguing plot hooks and then never expand on them, even backtrack them and obliterate the possibility of expanding on them in the future

There is so much wasted potential in this show

So much I saw that made me go, “What are the writings setting up for here?” And the answer was absolutely nothing. Audience disappointment.

Which is wild because they do have intriguing plot twists and character development and things that they foreshadowed in previous seasons, but they also have moments that feel like the setup for something super interesting and they just… aren’t.

To name a couple:

1. Luka finding out Ladybug & Chat Noir’s identities & lying about it? Only for him to pretend he didn’t know in Ephemeral (He literally could’ve prevented that whole episode from happening & Astruc played it up like it was gonna be some super special episode only for it to feel like a less interesting version of Chat Blanc) & then randomly reveal it to her later? With no further explanation & the consequence being that he episodes later left Paris to become a monk . There was so much more potential there, and I’m not even talking about having Marinette be Angsty over him lying to her (Although given her strong opinions about lying coupled with the fact that they literally broke up because he didn’t know her identity, it was weird that she didn’t really seem to care? She panicked over it for like a second and he reassured her and then it was all fine and dandy) In general they could’ve played with him knowing in secret so much more

2. Alix saying that Ladybug hadn’t realized how awesome she was yet and that she chose her for the bunny Miraculous because she could keep a secret? Had me wondering what secret Alix was gonna keep for her and how exactly Alix receiving her miraculous would go… Only for them to not do anything with that at all. LB just gave it to her. And they also told everyone her identity which I thought was super weird????

It just irks me. Plz tell me I’m not the only - I’d love to hear what moments made other ppl think the writers had a plan only for them to completely lose the plot

[saltedslugspine]

chase davenport character analysis i wrote four years ago that i just rediscovered

Part 1 here

This might be a little bit of a reach, but I just say he hides it extremely well, and his siblings actually do think he’s full of himself. I do think there are some points in the show where he genuinely believes he is superior, but it kind of goes back and forth, it’s not one or the other. They go into a little more detail about this struggle in Elite Force, but they give his main conflict to Bree instead. Chase, not Bree, is the one who struggles with his whole identity around his abilities and feeling insignificant next to people. They made Bree feel insignificant next to Skylar about only having a couple of bionic abilities next to Skylar’s multiple super powers, leading her to touch the Acturion. However, Bree was never concerned with her abilities in Lab Rats, she instead strived for normalcy. It would make more sense for Chase to be insecure about his own abilities and do something rash like that instead of Bree. I do like the tunnel scene with Chase and Skylar, where he admits his insecurities after being shown up by Skylar when he misses a mission. Where he says he built his whole identity around being the mission leader, and he doesn’t really know who he is without it. Skylar ends up keeping the secret of him locking her in the lab, which was really nice of her. At the end, Chase ends up denouncing his mission leader position, which was really amazing to see him come that far, and not hold his whole identity by that status. His arc pretty much concludes in that episode but whatever.

Another thing that Chase struggles with is his alter-ego Spike, who is basically the exact opposite of Chase. In all four cases of Spike showing up, it’s usually his siblings triggering it by either embarrassing him or making him angry. As a result, as soon as he snaps out of it and sees all the damage Spike did, he feels hurt and betrayed. The impact Spike has on Chase is rarely shown due to that plot happening only four times. But Chase is shown to be extremely upset at Adam after he ruined the study session with Sabrina. Chase wasn’t shown being outwardly angry at Leo after Principal Perry beat him up, but I’d assume once they got home, Chase would be pissed off at him. This most definitely takes a toll on him and further contributes to his need to be seen as strong and worthy, especially given the fact that Spike is seen as a "cooler version" of himself who he can never live up to.

Chase may appear as an arrogant prick at times, but he's honestly such a sweetheart. His comedic yelling is so funny and he cares about his family so much. Personally, I think his abilities are the most impressive, but that’s just me. He has this habit of touching his face which is really funny. If you look at him any time when the other characters are talking, chances are he’ll be touching his face, especially in the fourth season. Chase is often the one to get panicked about certain situations and the others have to tell him to chill out. I can’t tell you how many times the phrase “Relax, Chase.” has been uttered on this show. I've headcanonned him as bisexual as he’s pretty obviously queer-coded throughout the entire series, but it was obviously never really explored due to the constraints of the show. Watching his interactions with Marcus (before he found out he was evil, an android, and Douglas’ creation) and Sebastian (before he turned evil) solidified it for me. People can explain it off as them just being friends all they want, but I think not. Chase is shown to be especially nervous around Marcus and wanting to hang out and impress him. Also, after they had a truce, Chase and Sebastian became close for those two episodes before Sebastian turned on them. Adam says something about Sebastian breaking Chase’s heart later on, how could that be any more obvious?? Also, at the dance with Jake while he was in a cyber cloak as Bree. Despite being shown to resent the whole experience, after the cyber cloak is turned off, Chase says “Thank you for a magical evening”. I don’t care if it was for a cheap laugh. I will die on this hill. Overall, I think he's such a complex and interesting character and I wish there was more to go off on than just a children's sitcom where everyone appears so one dimensional and flat on the surface.

[goldendoodlerlockerlove]

Geneuary Countdown: Discussion Question #1

Hello everyone!

To drum up excitement for Geneuary, I wanted to ask a question to encourage some fun discussion!

I'd like to ask what one of your guys' favorite Gene moments is. You can choose multiple because I know it'll probably be quite difficult to narrow it down!

I have so many favorite Gene moments that it was super difficult for me to narrow down, but one moment that really made me fall in love with Gene as a character and make me appreciate him was this moment from Season 5, Episode 5, Best Burger:

There is so much I could analyze about this scene, almost too much. But I've already kind of analyzed it for my post on why I love Bob and Gene's father/son relationship, so I'll try not to repeat anything.

I adore how genuinely hard Gene worked to try and help Bob this whole episode. Sure, it was technically him who created the issue in the first place, but he was just being a kid and being forgetful, something I can definitely relate to a ton. And he spent the entire episode trying to make up for his mistake, and he went through hell and back to get that black garlic.

He could've just given up at any time and run through that Hot Fudge Car Wash, but he didn't! He persevered and insisted that he should be the one to get the garlic to Bob, as he was the reason why Bob didn't have it. Side note, Gene was very ADHD coded in this episode, and I love it, as someone whose sister and boyfriend have ADHD.

Anyway, I adore how Gene apologizes to Bob right away, but it breaks my heart every single time when he calls himself a screw-up! He actually believes that he messes things up all the time, and that makes me want to reach through the screen and give him the biggest hug imaginable. He deals with so many confidence issues under his bubbly, effervescent surface, and it's always so fascinating to analyze and unpack.

It's always so clear how everyone saying that he messed up (even using his name as a negative verb) has affected him mentally. It's caused him to believe that if he doesn't fix this mistake, he'll just be seen as a screw-up, so that's why his determination in this episode was so strong. It's admirable, but it makes me want to give him some encouragement because he definitely needs it.

And him taking a moment to say that he's always admired Bob always has me 🥺 He loves his dad so much it's so cute. He really thinks of Bob as someone to aspire to be and look up to and is much more willing to admit it than Louise. I'm sure having a child who's so verbally enthusiastic about looking up to him feels really nice for Bob. Sure, Tina is also very vocal about her love for her family too, but is probably not as enthusiastic as Gene is, at least at this moment.

Also, I know it's not related to Gene, but I love how Bob quickly apologizes for snapping. It's a small thing, but it really goes to show how good of a dad Bob is.

My second favorite Gene moment is probably this one from the ending of Season 8, Episode 9, Y Tu Ga-Ga Tambien:

I think this goes back to Gene's self-worth issues that are hidden beneath the surface. Ga-Ga Ball genuinely made him feel left out, as seen with the line "It's not a good feeling when someone says "everyone" but they don't mean you!" It's implied here that Gene has felt excluded before, and unfortunately, I can definitely see that happening.

He's been excluded before (sort of) as seen in Season 5, Episode 17, The Itty Bitty Ditty Committee, where he was kicked out of his own band. That exclusion even led him to almost give up music entirely! So whenever someone excludes Gene, he carries it deep within himself. It actually hurts him a lot, even if he doesn't always show it. He gives off a happy, bubbly exterior because he is genuinely a happy kid, but he also doesn't exactly enjoy talking about any issues he has.

But when he had an opportunity to speak out against exclusion, he took it, because he didn't want anyone else to feel the same way he did. That was why he was the only one left who didn't like Ga-Ga Ball, because of that exclusionary aspect.

But yes, this was a fantastic speech and Gene moment. The gifs were taken from this lovely post:

[shadowsong26x]

And here we are with BSG mix 3 of 3 from Ye Olde Days of like 2010-2012 XD Previously I’ve talked about my Season Three mix, Days Upon Our Knees and my Cylon ship mix, Heart of the Machine.

This one is a Baltar/Six mix; generally focusing on Head!Six and Caprica. I did remember a couple of the tracks going in (one because it was an actual Bad Choice--the only one on all three of these mixes that I don’t think should be there at all--and a couple that were good ones. But a lot of it I hadn’t remembered, so it was nice to go through it!

Also, at the end of the Actual List of 14 tracks, there’s a list of songs I’d include now if I were making it (and/or I’m Considering making another one and most if not all of them would be on it.)

All right, let’s get to it!

1/touch (clay aiken)      ah, this one. i can’t say it doesn’t fit them (because it does), but it’s. uh. this was my song for ‘yes these two have a lot of enthusiastic sex’ and i definitely could’ve done better here XD that being said, i do like it for them? the angel references are always a bonus.

2/voodoo child (rogue traders)      i actually think this is one of the better fits on this mix. and yes, like many people in general fandom/online circles at the time, i picked it up from that one doctor who episode But it’s now...way more associated with these two (specifically caprica’s confession/the attack) than that. there was also something of a fanvid in my head (i was never able to make fanvids lol), and i particularly remember that the transition from the first verse into the chorus lined up with that One Specific Shot of her pushing him down as the house explodes around them. so there it is.

3/i’ll be seeing you (linda eder)      i mean. how could i not, lol (this was the first version i had; i was given a whole album of her broadway covers. also i always forget that this song technically comes from a broadway show....and yes, i am aware that it’s also on the s3 mix in a completely different context but Still.)

4/devil inside (inxs)      i think this actually should’ve been before track two, and i’m not sure why it’s here instead? but yeah it’s that reminder of ‘look i love these two they are 10000% my blorbos but they are. not great people’

5/gone with the wind (international victim)      another song that i still like for them, but this one i think is too early in the mix. i mean, we’re not...super chronological here, for this middle part of the mix, but this lines up with gaius in the back half of s3, so having it This Early in the mix feels off to me now.

6/protege-moi (placebo)      so i also use this song for anakin skywalker XD and while i actually don’t think gaius makes the best parallel there (that would be my best beloved athena), the song fits both of them so here we are. it’s definitely not one that developed Such a strong association Elsewhere that it ruined it for anything else, anyway.

7/liken a razor (adam pascal)      this one’s more about head!six, i think. it’s not my favorite on the mix, but i can’t say it doesn’t work/doesn’t belong. it hits that combination of fear and need/worship pretty well.

8/she’s always a woman (billy joel)      the first of two songs that can best be summed up with ‘i love you despite the warning signs.’ XD this one, again, mostly about head!six, but also kind of about caprica in the sense that...while they were together, the first time they were together, she actively planned to murder him and not just everyone he ever loved, but everyone he ever knew or could have known, using him to do it, and yet he can’t help remembering the way she smiled, the way they argued about idk obscure math theorems, spending lazy mornings in bed with her talking about everything and nothing...yep. yep yep yep. ((there will be more on this subject in either this month’s or (more likely) april’s fill for the otp meme))

9/he’s a tramp (lady and the tramp)      i really don’t have much to say about this one except...like...can you really say it shouldn’t be here XD (and yes, this is the second ‘i love you despite the warning signs’ pick.)

10/not me (aida)      a transition song, starting to come back from their estrangement. the more i listen to it, the more i like it here? although again, slightly out of order; it would need to be switched with the next one except...

11/antebellum (vienna teng)      this is the Mistake Track. and not just because this song is now Inextricably linked with satine and bo-katan kryze (but their relationship is not the subject of this essay, lol). but i think even before i got back into star wars/clone wars, i was having second thoughts about this one. the problem is, this song was supposed to be during their separation. when it’s not like they don’t love each other anymore (they never really stopped; witness how caprica continues to respond to head!baltar), but after everything that happened--with new caprica, with d’anna, with...just...everything...does that really matter anymore? and it’s really fucking hard to find a breakup song that hits right for the two of them. most of them are too angry or too bleak, or not angry or bleak for the right versions. antebellum comes close, because it’s a ‘what was and could have been but will never be again’ sort of thing but...it just. doesn’t work. i did not transfer it to my ipod with the rest of the mix, and while i do want a song for that particular part of their story...the mix as a whole does work without it.

12/casanova’s waltz (drew sarich)      and once again, i cheated in terms of my ‘don’t repeat artists’ rule. XD but i do like this song in terms of him choosing to dedicate himself entirely to their relationship, even after everything. ...and being a dramatic little shit about it, naturally XD

13/save the best for last (a capella/vanessa williams)      and this is her taking him back. the version i have is an unsourced a capella version i got on a cd a member of my high school shakespeare troupe gave all of us when he graduated a year before i did, so...who the hell knows, i just have it marked as ‘a capella.’ but yeah, i like it, it fits things here, and there’s that sense of ‘finally we’re on the same page for the first time in our Entire Relationship, we can move forward together now.’

14/i believe (altar boyz)      i love this song. and i love it for them. i wrote a quick fic a while back (that really needed to be two), but it’s about the way the two of them come together, they work together, because love, their love, is about choosing one another and forgiving one another, and, well, believing in one another. it’s just. a good place to leave them, a great song for where they landed. also iirc it’s Not Weird because in context this song is in fact about the band itself/Each Other. not jesus

And now, some additional songs I’d probably put on a playlist for them if I was making one now. If the prior mix skewed more Baltar’s POV outside of the shared-POV songs, I think this one skews more Caprica (or at least I tried). There’s also a lot less Head!Six.

This is not what I would call a Complete mix. There’s some redundancy in terms of moments/aspects of their relationship that are covered, and there are other gaps involved (in particular, I don’t have anything with even Vague Pretentions to being a Sex Song like ‘Touch’ was for the prior list). Also I feel like it’s not super balanced in terms of Tone. But it’s a starting point, anyway. Accordingly, these aren’t numbered and the order, while vaguely chronological, is by no means set in stone.

what am i feeling/galavant      played Completely Straight in a Very Different Way than the original context; this is caprica starting to realize that she’s falling for her own honey trap.

if i loved you/carousel      this is basically the ‘the things men do for love’ scene (or her asking ‘do you love me’ in the miniseries). they’ve each independently realized they love the other (though not that it’s mutual) but Saying That Out Loud Lol No Why Would I Do That (would it necessarily be this cover? no, this was just the first that came up on youtube, lol. but also it’s hard to go wrong with these two singers sooooo maybe XD)

your love is my drug/ke$ha      tell me i’m wrong XD (this might not go on a baltar/six mix Specifically, if only because i had vague plans at one point for doing a six mix of Entirely Ke$ha Songs, one for each notable six, in part because of this Perfect Fit, and in part because applying ‘blow’ to corinne/armistice station!six is just So Perfectly Terrible i couldn’t resist XD)

blonde over blue/billy joel      this probably would’ve made the first list if it weren’t redundant in terms of both the point it’s making (which is covered by...a couple of different ones) and artist, but...yep.

bad romance/lady gaga      again, tell me i’m wrong. this one, the ‘you’re a criminal as long as you’re mine’ line hits particularly hard for these two. also is it just me or are Some of the ways she’s styled in this video kind of...Hitting Some Familiar Visual Notes........

my immortal/evanescence      okay but hear me out XD like, yes, this song is Notoriously Cringe but a) i have no shame at this point in my fandom career and b) these two--when they’re together--have this blend of Melodrama and Painfully Awkward Sincerity and there is no band (or song) which hits that note quite as well as this one. also the lyrics actually fit pretty well if you pay attention to them so shut up, don’t at me, it’s on the list.

silent symphony/drew sarich      this one is about their first reunion, on new caprica, and there’s...a lot of Thoughts i have about that, about how the love is there and it is real, but with Everything Else going on it’s just...there’s a level of Desperation going on, too. and i haven’t been putting full lyric transcriptions in these summaries (because they’re long enough without them lol) but a couple lines stand out: ‘thank god for the night/pushing the complications from sight/hushing our battle drums til the sunlight/tosses a problem from every direction’; ‘you still see a man who knows wrong from his right’; ‘come on and quiet down/and wrap your arms around me/calmly for now’; ‘if i can’t see your eyes/then i can hear you breathe/and we can find a warm, firm platform to plan from’

how to save a life/grey’s anatomy cast      look this is the version i heard in full first and i like it so shut up and bear with me. anyway, this is a companion to the last one, because it’s about the way he pulls away from her, and the way she tries for as long as she can, and their relationship just falls apart during the first half of season 3, even when they’re trying Desperately to make it work. again, not doing the full lyrics, but the end of the first verse in particular jumps out at me: ‘between the lines of fear and blame/you begin to wonder why you came.’

model prisoner/adam pascal     i thought of this when i was writing up ‘liken a razor’ above. i almost didn’t add it, mostly because a) trying to focus more on caprica’s pov; and b) trying to make it more her and less head!six and the second verse is particularly head!six, but...it works. and adds a different Tone Color to the mix, i think, which is Useful/Helpful. i don’t know why i went for liken a razor instead of this one on the first mix, since at least now i think this is a better fit, but here we are.

style/taylor swift      this is actually the song that got me contemplating doing a second mix for these two, way back before i even tracked down the original one and listened to it all the way through again. i was listening to it and it had kind of the right Vibe, and then i got to the second verse. stopped. backtracked to the beginning, and went, ‘well, shit.’ and i kind of like this as a closing track. it kind of fits the same moment/hits the same note as ‘save the best for last,’ except...not exactly. it couldn’t go any earlier than their final reconciliation, though. but it also feels a little...lackluster, almost? for their happy ending. i feel like i want to end on a more optimistic note.

make our garden grow/candide      so this one is a Hard Maybe, and only made this post when i was realizing that ‘style’ doesn’t quite hit the note i want for an Ending song. this song was actually the closer for my hypothetical s4 mix--but it does mooooostly seem to focus on these two so maybe this would be a better place? (no, cunegonde’s verse doesn’t really fit in either case but the first and third do) and even if the lyrics are no more optimistic than style, the Tone of the song is a little better...although now i’m second-guessing it even more, lol. well, i’ll leave it here for y’all to have Opinions about if you so choose XD

and also i’d throw a different cover of ‘i’ll be seeing you’ on there (and possibly title the mix I’ll Be Seeing You (Again) because well i think i’m funny) because Come On.

[ruthiesrambles2]

Ruthie rewatches: Season One, Episode One (part one)

Here have a stream of consciousness as I watch. Had so much to say that I'm cutting off halfway through the episode because it's taken me an hour and a half to get this far.

Ohhh the animated intro! I forgot about this. I remember first watching this and being enthralled. Fucking love the art and the transition to live action.

Baby Miles… Oh. This scene fucks me up more every time. His dad and sibling being left outside??? Let me tell you that has killed me now we have K2.

Yeah yeah Layton is already boring sorry. Do love the face he pulls at Grey though. Feel kinda bad for Grey, there's zero redemption for him he's just straight up bad guy.

Can I take a minute to appreciate the intro? I'm in love with the blueprints and I wish there existed a full version (not that that would work given the amount of disbelief we have to suspend).

What is the thing on the engine room door? I keep trying to work it out, it doesn't look like a standard W or anything.

Aw yiss boss lady emerges!

We get a shot of a jumble of paperwork on a messy desk and then the booth itself is neat and spotless. 100% the desk is Melanie's and no one can touch it but Ruth cleans the booth.

Also there's a Dell laptop. Strange mix of tech on this show and we see surprisingly little of it.

Perfectly central and still shot of Melanie in uniform. The crisps lines. The colouring. Yes.

Melanie has sensible nails. Only one possible explanation for that, clearly. Gay.

Our introduction to the train… classroom is cool but confusing. It seems the number of children is quite small and a broad age range but all the work and art seems to be primary level. There must be at least one more classroom. Third class. Tail. Watch the colour seep out of shots.

Something about measuring days since departure. I love it but surely that would be so depressing. Every day it's "everyone you know in the world died x days ago. Praise Wilford"

The balls on Josie. The swagger on Till!!

So we've got Josie the vet being the closest thing we have to a doctor in the Tail but here's an extra who clearly knows how to use a stethoscope. We won't ever see her again.

Strong Boy my lad!! What a character. Not sure who's hairbrained idea it was to give up rations for one (1) super-soldier (mediocre grade). Probably Layton's.

Why isn't Miles as bedraggled as the other kids? He's not only clean but smiley too. Layton proximity powers.

Pike with hair! I have no love for the character but really starting to appreciate Steven Ogg's acting.

13 Arms. How many nightmares did Ruth have that night huh. The sound of shattering frozen flesh rings a little like champagne glasses, doesn't it? How many times did she relive that day setting up for First Class dinners. Forgive me I am 8 minutes in and already daydreaming about her.

Mama Grande… Miss you babe.

"I don't want you on the front line tomorrow" uhh I'm sorry Mr Layton but who do you think you are. Leave Miss Balls of Steel Josie alone she doesn't need your patronising bullshit. Oh wait, kiss/cuddle/domesticity. Eh. Let you off then.

OHHHH TIME FOR THE BEST SCENE IN THE WHOLE SERIES. MAMA GRANDE SING IT. This scene is honestly breathtaking. The song, the prayer, the weapons, the togetherness.

"Wilford's train is a fortress to class" excellent line is excellent.

God the faces shown here. Knowing they're going to be ripped from us. Not all at once but. Most of them.

Melanie at the steps to first class dining… they mirror this shot in s3 and it's such a great call back.

How does she walk in those heels? My feet hurt just looking at them.

Iguana time!

Incredible variety of food at breakfast time considering the delicate balance of the food system.

Gay dad time!

Throwing in Melanie speaking Cantonese to remind us she's SuperSmartGeniusGirl

First shot of my most specialist blorbo!! She looking so fine.

Look how in step Melanie and Ruth are. The mirroring! The eyelash flutter. Gay.

Also obsessed with the difference in cut between their uniforms. I wonder if the rest of hospitality have their uniforms tailored to body shape too.

Lilah, baby, they invented the sauna. They can be nakey and sing songs. It's OK. Bodies are natural.

LJ with the sunglasses. Girl who packs sunglasses to get on a train travelling forever through a perpetual winter wasteland? Iconic. Her fashion is so baby gay here. Bi LJ is basically canon right?

Why does Melanie turn to look at Ruth like she's staring into her soul. Gay.

OH NO. Eye flutters to Lilah now. Super gay.

TRACK TALK. For every ounce that @train-pirate hates it I double down on loving it. I'm keeping it. I'm going to say it to you all the time. Track talk.

Arm touch arm touch! Gay.

Walking brushing against each other! Gayer.

Fixed stare open mouth. Even gayer.

Eye lash flutters. Getting gayer.

"Excuse to wear your fur" + tongue click. GAYEST. WE HAVE REACHED PEAK GAY. THESE BITCHES FUCKING IT'S CONFIRMED.

Back to the Tail. Has anyone checked Pike can actually count? The man's just throwing up fingers he has no idea. Also look buddy. It's the woman you're gonna bang once and die for. Started from the bottom didn't ya.

Alison has confirmed it's a faux fur. So I can have a clear conscience about the way I'm looking at Ruth in it, right? ✨Respectfully✨

Alison my beloved. Pick an accent. I love it.

Tristan! Baby.

Ruth does not have the gay nails. Pillow princess.

I know we get this decontamination scene to see Layton dehumanised but they are not consistent with it at all. The jackboots and brakeman have no infectious disease control protocols so what's the point?

The subtrain seems set up for engineering/maintenance purposes but they talk about it later like whole swathes of people use it. Do you think it was designed like that or did people start using it as a shortcut after departure and Melanie couldn't stop it?

Okay I've gotta give it to DD his acting of a hungry man facing his favourite food is really great. I don't understand grilled cheese and tomato soup though. Shit tier food combination.

Okay so there's been debate about how Osweiller came to be a Brakeman and the consensus is he joined W security before the freeze. But the way Roche phrases it here "most of us were Wilford security. Some were… soccer players?" makes it very much seem he wasn't. Os is smart and resourceful but I so wanna know how he got in.

Ohhhhh Miles calling Josie mom. Crush my heart why don't you.

"yall got some serious problems up in here" Sassboy Layton. And the face he gives Osweiller. Okay DD you're winning again.

"What about his… Um…dick?" spoken like a true lesbian Bess Till.

Footie jokes. Just bantz innit.

"smooth relations". Girl. You're so awkward.

Melanie's eye contact is so strong. Forceful even. Unusually long. Autie vibes for sure, that's learned behaviour and masking and overthinking. Just doesn't look as creepy when you have a face like JC's.

… How does never-left-the-Tail Layton know what the Drawers are? He just rolls with it.

To be continued…

[xeansicemane]

I've been doing a big think about ST: Picard.

Spoilers ahead, obviously.

Firstly, I want to say the series had a lot of cool ideas. Seven temporary making herself queen in S1 was very cool visually, I loved the concept of the La Sirena; it was interesting to see the logical fallout of the EMH program and what that could allow. I didn't entirely mind the way Q stepped out at the end of S2, and learning more about Guinan and her people was super cool. Heck, it was nice to see that Wesley's Space Jesus gig was going well.

But despite having a lot of cool ideas it never felt fully coherent. S1 was fun and interesting but the reveal felt a little stale in a post Mass Effect world. S2 ended up feeling like a way-too-stretched-out time travel episode that DS9 did a lot more elegantly with the Bell Riots. I enjoyed it, Trek is at its' strongest when it's making strong political statements, but again the ending didn't entirely make sense. S3 was the shortest on cool moments and ideas. I love a good battle at the center of the mind, and 7 of 9's whole kinda-deadname plot was sort of nice to see.

I get that S1 is about the consciousness of death making us human but they never really do the groundwork to justify that a human lifespan of 100 or so years is the most just and ethical lifespan. Picard is saved from one terminal illness only for organ failure to get him one day. The show never sits down and explains why the Federation isn't struggling against death in all its' incarnations - they have the tech for radical life extension but they just never do it, and the show never touches on that rather glaring oversight. People don't need to be immortal but what ethical imperative is there to only get a century in a galaxy full of wonders?

S2 is largely fine, it's a bit thin in places but it comes out to a pretty okay un-fucking the past and Q plotline. Can't complain about most of it. I even sort of liked the idea of the Jurati collective! The trouble is it was never explored in depth or even given screen time. I would have loved to see a radical reimagining of the Borg and what they could be and mean. My only two nitpicks are where the hell was she in S3 and how did an entire parallel collective go undetected? Like, they've been around for centuries and the normal Borg never got a stick up their ass about those 'defects'? Even a sentence or two would have assuaged my curiosity.

S3 is inarguably the weakest of the series. It's a lot of set pieces and a lot of hammy moments that ultimately don't cohere beyond a vague sense of nostalgia. Dr. Crusher's loss of Westley was sad, and I did think that was a good angle to develop the character along. However as we saw in S2, Westley is still out there and fine; he's not lost he's just refusing to take a minute to visit his mother ever. Dick move, Westley. The whole thing with the new breed of changelings barely made sense, and while I did love the big creepy flesh monster Borg queen I can't for a moment understand why her anger was directed solely at Picard. Picard isn't the one who took the collective down, Picard isn't the one who consistently outfoxed her and did real damage at the heart of Borg territory. That was Janeway. Like, okay if she wanted both of them dead that would make sense, but Janeway's name is mentioned only three or four times in the whole series and it's only to say she's busy.

Honestly I think it's because Janeway would've stopped the series two episodes short by just showing up with a gun and shooting the queen. And I do mean a good old fashioned slug thrower like an M1911 or something.

So, in the end seasons 1 and 2 are thoroughly okay Stars Trek, Season 3 is in my lower quartile. It still beats Enterprise but I'm not willing to say it beats the Animated Series.

[makishinichi]

random thoughts after watching gwitch

im not a gundam fan so this is just a mild observation as a random watcher. im sure everyone and their mom has dissected the series from front to back, so everything i yap about here has probably been discussed already but anyway! there were a lot of themes that i found interesting...

the concept of "romantic" love. of course, it's a common theme where male characters only see romantic love as something to "conquer" and don't see the female love interests as true people with true feelings. there were many elements of that here too, but overall i felt that the male characters saw suretta and miorine as metaphors for their true desires, like. guel's romantic love for suretta was formed due to his desire to be accepted. eran's feelings for suretta was due to his desire to not be alone. and ultimately they did find what they were looking for, but not in suretta. by the end guel had to fight his little brother who had accepted the old him all along and was furious that his big brother had changed (even if it was for the better). eran's reincarnation found some form of companionship in norea and when it was cruelly taken away, he joined forces with suretta to make sure it doesn't happen anymore. these men didn't have to torment women to fulfill their desires. when suretta and miorine stood up for themselves, the men were forced to open their eyes and find what they were looking for elsewhere.

also the idea of a romantic love that caused the death of familial love (even if by accident) is so interesting to me! i was so intrigued. usually in situations like these, the character would choose romantic love over familial love. but what happens when, driven by romantic love, you end up destroying a bond you did not choose to destroy? it would be well and good if guel chose to kill his abusive father for suretta's sake. but that autonomy and choice wasnt given to him. i thought that was a very interesting plot point!

and in counterpoint suretta and miorine were actively making choices in defiance of their own true desires because of their "love" for each other, even if they didn't view it as "romantic". suretta chose to protect miorine even if it meant it might hamper her list, miorine chose not to escape to earth even when presented with an opportunity because of suretta.

speaking of which the full moment thing in the first season made me cheer so hard like when shadiq gave the instruction to carry out the assassination attempt i was like YES! a father must die to complete the circle started by the death of eri's father in episode 1! i love stuff like that it was so much fun.

the political elements... idk if they wanted me to root for the earthians but seeing the earthians manage to break into the strong defences of the super rich with outdated gear made me think well.. you want me to root for the "terrorists" right? and when it was revealed that the spaceians were making money off warmongering on earth i was like HMMM... you want me to root for shadiq right???!!!! lmao obviously they wanted to show how the cycle of violence will never end until someone comes up with a proper solution but idgaf i'm team earth! lol

and my favourite: suretta's desire to confront (and be with) her mother and sister. "even if no one understands your goal, i'll support it!" "i'm selfish and i want to be with you!" this theme is one that i love greatly and many of my favourite pieces of media always have this theme - the theme of forgiveness and love being an active choice somebody makes for themselves, rather than it being the "right thing to do" or "being the better / good person". they're under no obligation to forgive or love, but they chose it anyway, for their own sake and not for anyone else's. there is no moral superiority in choosing to love. its simply a choice that suretta made.

and i'm sure portraying the "terrorists" as darker skinned was a choice. i won't say it's good or bad. but it was a choice!

another thing was about how the characters started up with simple goals but in the end had to actively undo the sins of their family. it may seem unfair but characters like miorine and guel had benefited from the oppression of earthians, and so their simple dreams of wanting to stand on their own without their families telling them what to do could not exist until they stood up against the direct oppression caused by their families. its true, everything doesnt exist in a vacuum and even the simple desire of being independent unfortunately, in a political context, is running away from the sins of their family. and instead of being independent, they inherited their family's sins and actively tried to undo it.

some usual thoughts on the seiyu: i loved the cast. i wasnt very familiar with suretta, miorine and guel's vas but they impressed me a lot! it was nice to hear mamiko noto and makochan play roles that arent the type of roles i usually hear them in. also the episode where eran and norea were screaming at each other made me laugh cause those two vas are really good at screaming and crying so it was really nice to listen to lol

there's a lot more i thought about but i cant remember so that's all i'll write here lol. overall it was a very interesting series and made me think a lot in terms of thematic significance as opposed to the plot and characters. not sure if thats what they wanted to achieve but it was how i consumed it anyway!

[kumishona]

Yes to all of the above! Manifesting the “growing closer” part! (And the other addition in the reblogs about them having already become very close, soft and protective since the end of Season 1 … dare I say to the point it’s getting explicitly mutually romantic.)

I think they’ll do great. A lot of angst and then perhaps a good scare for us—Imagine one of them is in grave danger and then once he’s safe that’s what makes them talk to each other again. It’s a common trope but oh it works.

I’ve always felt that they’re both super mature and tough. Like, the stuff they handled even on the daily in their little photo studio business was dark and required so much empathy for people from all walks of life. (They’re the best feminist men I’ve come across in anime-aligned media, actually.) They’ve been through enough to understand how important it is to hold onto your loved ones—because time is fleeting.

I have so much faith in my boys. Top ten best fictional men 10000%. All I worry about and hope for is:

They both get to live. Or they’re like “We will take it one day at a time and make sure to protect ourselves and each other and we’ll be alive, happy, and together for a very, very long time.” An ending like that would melt my heart.

(This may be a long shot and honestly I don’t even need it if the writers just give us the former.) Their romance is made canon.* I love strong platonic bonds (and that between men is severely underrated!), but the subtext in this show is giving queerplatonic at least. I can’t begin to describe how important the representation would be, too. They would have to be careful about censorship and even then would run the risk of alienating some of the incel straight audience and a hit to the popularity of the show. So I’m not feeling super optimistic about a canonical shiguang.

My greatest fear is that they cannonize the romance and then one or both of them dies which would absolutely shatter me. If we can only have one, I will always choose my former point.

*This is, of course, assuming that the writers don’t already consider it canon, given Chinese censorship laws. Shiguang has already canonically shown to be in parallel with other couples in the show (noodle sapphics, time traveler and his wife), but I believe that they can be made more concrete. Right now, it looks like a slow-burn leading to something, and the tinest, most coded gesture between the two could give us some sense of finality to their romance. Some haters will still have plausible deniability which will help retain audience. But the rest of us have enough given by the narrative to know the couple is 100% canon.

What do y’all think the style of Season 3 will be like? We already had an episodic (ish) slice-of-life season where we got to know the characters, and then a cat-and-mouse action thriller season where we understood more of the magical realism lore. I think the genre will set the tone for the narrative again in Season 3.

I’m hoping we get something more chill than Season 3 but more intense than Season 1, like a story unfolding, where we are given the details of the issue at hand and what exactly Lu Guang needs now. And then the characters (after some arguing), work out a viable solution. The fate vs parallel timelines thing and the whole Lu Guang stuck in infinite time loop(s) prospect gives me so much anxiety. I hope confiding in Cheng Xiaoshi (and Qiao Ling) really helps everything fall into place. Despite the dark moments, I believe that the show is meant to be optimistic (in a realistic sort of way), and I’m praying for a wholesome, fluffy ending for our main three. And the Hat Man better not hurt any of them!

To all of us in agony overthinking what CXS's reaction to what LG has done will be (myself included). I remind you of episode 5

Look, Lu Guang knows he messed up. He took a risk not telling Cheng Xiaoshi about the earthquake (all to protect him, keep in mind) and it backfired spectacularly.

Oof. Yeah good question. Getting right to it.

Uh huh. Uh-huh yeah-- wait. Oh. No, he's dead serious about that. During the earthquake Lu Guang reminds Cheng Xiaoshi specifically of their present time. He warns that changing the node of death in the photo would affect THEM. He's protecting their present. Anyway moving on.

Cheng Xiaoshi did very much punch that handsome face in light of "betrayal." Like, this isn't a hypothetical. The initial fallout between them will be immense. And I really don't think just one punch is going to be enough for Lu Guang's actions... but were not here for the initial fallout. We're not here for a present, heated, moment. We're here for the future.

So now every time Lu Guang says "fool," what I hear is "I love you". (Thanks for that episode s2e12.)

But also. Is Lu Guang talking about himself here too?

"Don't question the future, because the future will definitely change because of us."

I don't know. I've kind of started seeing Lu Guang as going through phases. Phases where he is 100% stuck in the past. Keeping it the same, untouched. Phases where he is living in the present, relishing every moment he has. Phases where he is looking to a future. No, not just looking, but desperately fighting for that future where they all live.

These words are for himself.

Cheng Xiaoshi comes off as impulsive because he's got a big heart, but he is a thinker. He has had so much time, alone, to think. He thinks about his parents being caught in the earthquake, alone in an empty house. He takes days to think about Lu Guang words here, before forgiving him and offering that naive trust again. In Xu Shanshan's case, he shut himself in the darkroom all afternoon to think and plan, alone.

I don't see a future where Cheng Xiaoshi lets Lu Guang go. I see a future where Cheng Xiaoshi THINKS and thinks until he understands, and understands enough to finds a future for them both.

But first, they really need to have an honest-to-god talk. (And maybe a good punch.)

[mlchaelwheeler]

My big worry is that there just won't be enough time in the last two episodes (despite how long they'll be) to focus on Will the way we want the writers to focus on him. I am absolutely certain that there'll be something more about his sexuality, but it really needs to be something more than what we've been given in vol 1 because even though they are focusing on his sexuality, they're focusing on it as if he's a recurring character, not a main. And I'm not really sure about any other storylines for him bc there's only two eps left and there's so much going on at the moment. I loved his scenes in vol 1, don't get me wrong, but he just wasn't a big focus and Noah didn't get much challenging material to showcase his talent and I'm kinda like why would that change in vol 2 when there's only 2 eps left? Especially now that I feel that they possibly could be preoccupied with El and the other stories going on in Hawkins. I hope that El doesn't overpower the story once they find her...I don't want Will to be treated like an after thought and get a few measly scenes that briefly focus on him.

I totally agree! I was super disappointed with the lack of screen time Will got in vol 1--he felt like as much of a side character as Argyle when he's supposed to be one of the main characters and even had 2 seasons centered around him! However, I'm very hopeful for his narrative in vol 2 mainly because the story seems to be setting him up to be involved heavily with defeating Vecna and getting answers to the upside down.

So far, for vol 2, here's what we know about Will's storyline: his sexuality will be addressed (meaning it will be explicitly made clear he has a crush on Mike), he will have a one-on-one chat with Mike in Hopper's cabin (most likely involving his painting, which was spotlighted multiple times in vol 1 to clue the audience into the fact that it's important), he will somehow be at the roller rink in his present clothes (meaning he most likely gets vecna'd or shows up in someone's trance), he will be involved in some sort of stunt (most likely a trance, based on his harness' similarity to Sadie's), and he will have lots of dialogue (Noah posted something about having to memorize tons of dialogue--something we didn't see in vol 1).

With all of these clues put together, I think it's safe to say Will will play a much larger role in vol 2 than he did in vol 1. It almost seems intentional that he was essentially "forgotten," both by the characters (Mike and El), and the writers (as a meta to the plot), probably to make it hit harder when Vecna brings this up. This was pretty much a continuation of his S3 arc, so his storyline isn't finished--there has to be a conclusion to this, most likely involving a confession of how hurt he was to the people closest to him.

I can see the possibility of when the cali crew gets El back, that Mike/Jonathan could "forget" about Will and focus on El's wellbeing, which could make Will all that more vulnerable before arriving to Hawkins, where Vecna will be waiting. I think this time though, Mike is more in tune with his own feelings and will be "kicked into gear" when Will falls into danger. This will prompt a strong storyline for Will in vol 2, hopefully 🤞🏻🤞🏻

[thehollowprince]

Slightly random TFATWS question here, but I'd be interested in your take on it. If the point of the supersoldier serum is that it essentially amplifies your existing qualities and makes you More of what you already were - as Erskine says, good becomes better, bad becomes worse - then how would you say it's affected Bucky? His actions as the WS were the result of Hydra's brainwashing, not the serum, and he doesn't seem to be affected by it in the way Walker or even the Flagsmashers are.

It's difficult to say for a variety of contributing factors.

Factor #1: Steve Rogers (and Johann Schmidt)

It's important to remember that both Steve and Red Skull were the only two that got Erskine's serum directly. And, if Schidmt got the same style of treatment as Steve did, then they were both the only two that we saw who got multiple doses of the serum, as seen below...

Steve was also the only one we saw who got the combination serum + Howard Stark's Hottie Machine, so we don't know what effect that tech might have had on administering the serum.

Every other person that we saw (or didnt see) had a single dosage of a modified serum - an attempt at recreating Erskine's original success. Such as, the Flag Smashers...

... or John Walker...

... or even the five other Winter Soldiers.

The only exception to this that I can remember was Emil Blonsky from the Incredible Hulk (I know we all try to forget that movie), because he had multiple doses over multiple treatments of whatever version of the serum Ross had cooked up trying to recreat Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner.

And much like Steve (and presumably Johann) it required extra steps to administer than just a shot or an IV drip, relying on Gamma Radiation to help "complete" the process.

The bottom line here is that, there have been no two versions of the serum that were the same that were administered in the same way. Steve Rogers was a unique occurrence in more than one way.

I also have a theory that the original serum was derived from the heart-shaped herb from Wakanda, given the similarities between the two when it comes to the enhanced physicality.

Maybe Erskine and Schmidt got their hands on an herb and refined it until it was just the physical (blue), excluding the more mystical attributes (red), such as the aspect that allowed Wakandan kings to communicate with their ancestors. (I have a theory about the heart-shaped herb, too, but I'll save that for another time)

It's also very important to remember that the only super soldier to experience any kind of major side effects was Schmidt.

No other super soldier looked like this

Factor #2: Hydra

Aside from the fact that Bucky didn't receive the same super soldier serum as the others, but whatever concoction that Zola managed to cook up in his attempt to recreate the serum (interesting to note that Schmidt seemed to take a more hands off approach to this, choosing instead to focus on the Tesseract and it's capabilities). As such, Bucky, as we saw him in The First Avenger, didn't exhibit any of the enhanced physical capabilities (or even an enhanced physicality) that Steve did after his experiment. In fact, the only evidence we have to confirm that Bucky had received some version of the serum was the fact that he survived the fall from the train, which we didn't get confirmed until The Winter Soldier.

The combination of Hydra having Bucky for over seventy years and him not presenting any attributes of the super soldier serum until after all says to me that he went through more experiments once he was back in their care, possibly some of the precursors to what they did during the Red Room and Black Widow programs.

Factor #3: Psychological

Now this last one is just my hypothesis, which is what you asked for, but I wanted to get the other variables out of the way first.

My personal opinion here is that, despite what Erskine said, I don't believe there is a psychological aspect to the serum. It is purely physical. The psychological component to these experiments - how the recipients handled their newfound power - was down to the individual. Steve Rogers didn't go through any radical ideology or personality shift. He was the same scrappy kid from Brooklyn who stood up to bullies and refused to back down from a fight, except now he had the muscle to back it up.

Same with John Walker, as controversial as that may sound. We had three whole episodes with Walker before he took the serum, and in that time, we already saw he was quick to anger and had aggressive tendencies. All the serum did was give him the power to back it up.

Earlier, he and Lemar were talking about what they could have done with the serum, saving their fellow soldiers, and we saw in the immediate follow up that Walker was trying to rationalize what happened, telling Sam and Bucky that he had to do it, that he killed a terrorist. That kind of mindset isn't something that can come about over night. That was something conditioned into him by the military, something he later shouted at them during his disciplinary hearing, telling them he was what they made him to be.

The Flag Smashers were fighting for what they believed in, for those the world forgot after the Snap (I refuse to call it The Blip, I'm sorry), and suddebly they had the muscle to stand up against those who would push them down.

Karli in particular was a scared kid backed into a corner, lashing out. Was a lot of what she did was wrong? Absolutely, but she wanted to send a message and used the only means that the governments hellbent on suppressing them seemed to understand. And, as we saw after that first bombing, this extremism wasn't shared by all the Flag Smashers.

It's like all those shows or movies or books where a mousy wallflower is given superpowers or turned into a vampire or werewolf and suddenly they have the power to push back against their oppressors. A great example of this would be the three werewolves introduced in season two of Teen Wolf, those being Isaac, Erica and Boyd, who all went from being shy loners to being cocky and arrogant because they had the power to stand up for themselves physically now.

You give someone power and you'll see who they really are.

To circle back around to the point I've been trying to make (sorry for the scenic route), it's that Bucky never showed any sign of extremism, whether for good or evil. And that had to do with a combination of who he was as a person - he was more or a follower, latching on to Steve and Sam as his guiding star - and Hydra's machinations and manipulations during his time as the Winter Soldier. By the time he was finally free of them, he just wanted to be by himself and deal (or not deal) with his various traumas.

The Bucky that we met at the beginning of The First Avenger was very quickly buried under war and tragedy. Who he was, because of what he went through, changed. And I think that was the point Erskine was trying to make, though he definitely could have worded it better. The serum makes you more of who you really are, shows your true colors, not because of any chemical response, but because of how power has been prioritized in society. The notion that you don't have to fear physical repercussions anymore, because who's strong enough to stop you?

[aurorabyler]

Byler: Their Motivations in Stranger Things 4

hi! so i’ve lurked on byler/stranger things tumblr since 2016 but i just have so much to say and am so obsessed with theorizing and writing and picking up on easter eggs so i thought i just had to have somewhere to spill all my thoughts. i’ve read pretty much every single byler theory there is out there (lmao the hyperfixation is just wayyy too strong) and have also looked into a lot of stuff regarding will and how he was able to do all of the stuff he did in the upside down. a few questions of many that i’ve been thinking about recently have to do with mike and will’s motivations for a lot of plot points that happen in season 4 particularly. i’ll start from the first one we see: will’s painting 

anyone who has been watching the show will of course pick up on will’s underlying feelings for mike and the subtext/hints that have been sprinkled in the show since season 1 (literally the first episode lmao). his feelings are known by the audience at this point and in contrast to mike, there is a lot less ambiguity surrounding it. mike is a whole other post, which many people have covered already, but what i’m interested in is what prompted will to start the painting in the first place?  el says that “will has been painting a lot,” implying that he’s been working on the piece for a while and that it holds a lot of importance for him. this has been covered by so many other posts and is to be expected. but other than mike’s upcoming visit to california, was there a specific moment or something that happened to will that would make him start working on the painting in the first place? we know how deeply will loves and cares for mike and it makes sense that he’d want to make something for him. will initially planned to give mike the painting at the airport (but we all know how that went lol), so it’s fair to assume that the painting wasn’t initially meant to be used for a love confession to mike. it was a display of love from will, but he wouldn’t give it to mike as a confession in such a public place and of course in front of el (and argyle who doesn’t even know mike). from the way things are going and from the hints we’ve been blessed with regarding volume 2, it seems like the painting is going to be used as a plot device for a confession. but when/if we do get that confession, i’m so curious to see if the duffers explore why/when will started the painting in the first place. what would be SUPER interesting would be if there is some flashback scene between will and mike that hinted to will even further that his feelings could be reciprocated one day. the timeline of season 3′s ending is what sticks out to me the most here. after mike and will’s fight, we do get that tiny but incredibly meaningful scene between them in the last episode of season 3 that hints toward their feelings for one another: “what if you want to join another party?” “not possible.”, but my thinking is, what if there is another flashback scene in here that will had on his mind when he started the painting? there is a 3 month gap between the battle of starcourt and the byers/el moving away. what if something else happened between mike and will during that time that would have given him the confidence to start the painting?  the reason why i think there could be a flashback is that it’s almost 100% likely that nothing happened between the two once will moved away, seeing as it’s explicitly stated that they drifted because they weren’t talking to each other.  ahhhhh i don’t know. this is driving me crazy...volume 2 really can’t come soon enough  anyways i hope this makes sense bc it’s mostly just a lot of brain rot tbh. maybe i’ll post more theories and stuff later lmaooo 

[maybeacrowdedmind]

So I Just Finished Skam...

First of all, I loved it. It was an incredible show and I'm so glad that there are so many remakes because I enjoyed it so much. One of my favorite things about the show was the fact that it feels extremely realistic, and I think a lot of that is due to the fact that a majority of the actors were actual teenagers (rather than actors who are obviously in their mid 20s and playing characters who are 16) and the fact that the characters behaved like actual teenagers (like using Facebook and Instagram, using "bad" language, dancing and singing along to music, etc. etc.). The other thing I adored about this show was the amount of importance that was placed on friendship. Platonic relationships in fiction are normally vastly underrated or underdeveloped in favor of romantic ones, so I appreciated that Skam showed so many friendships. So I decided to make a list of my favorite friendship moments from each season (two moments per season, with honorable mentions at the end before moving on).

Season 1:

1) Noora cheering up Eva by singing Justin Bieber to her:

I am not a fan of Justin Bieber at all (if you like him, all the more power to you, but I personally can't stand him), but Noora singing to Eva was such a great moment. She knew how sad Eva was, and decided to cheer her up by sharing something that made her (Noora) happy, and it was a really sweet moment between friends. It was also something that is realistic to do when someone you care about is down, and even though it was a small scene, it showed how strong a friendship Noora and Eva have.

2) All of the bonding moments between Sana, Vilde, Eva, Noora, and Chris:

I know this is a vague one, but just the sheer amount of time the girls spend together, whether they are doing something important or just hanging out was really awesome to see. Most of the time, tv shows don't take time to show us little moments like characters talking about boys or just sitting hanging out unless it has a more dramatc purpose. With Skam, we got to see those moments, which made the friendship between the girls that much more realistic.

Honorable Mentions for Season 1:

Eva grabbing the wrong Chris for Vilde, leading both Chris and Penetrator Chris (love that nearly everyone calls him that in the show by the way) to share a huge hug and go "name twins!" because that's totally something I'd do if I met someone who shared my name.

Eva and Ingrid finally talking about everything that happened, giving them both closure and the ability to move on, even if their friendship would never be the same (this was such a great scene because it showed Eva apologizing and telling Ingrid that she couldn't change what she did, but she would if she could, and it also allowed Ingrid to be hurt by what happened with Jonas, because let's face it, Ingrid was the injured party in that particular situation).

Season 2:

1) Noora telling Vilde all of the important things that the ingredients for tortilla do for you, and Vilde later doing the same for Noora:

I love how all of the girls take care of one another, but this scene in particular I loved a lot. Noora has noticed that Vilde hasn't been eating, and after hearing Vilde tell her all the reasons she doesn't like potatoes, Noora tells Vilde all the reasons she should. Noora also does so in a way that isn't shaming Vilde or being condescending to her, rather, Noora brings it up in a casual conversation. Later, Vilde notices Noora not eating, and prepares tortilla for her, quoting what Noora told her about potatoes and eating it with her. I loved this scene because it showed how much Noora and Vilde understood one another, as well as the importance of support.

2) The amount of support given to Noora by the girls after she discloses what happened with Nico:

This one is a total no-brainer. Noora had no idea what had happened that night, and had very little to go off of, and she spent the next few episodes terrified. When she tells the girls what she thinks might have happened, they all immediately stop what they're doing and rally around her. The no-dialogue scene in which they take Noora to the doctor and hold her and keep her safe was incredibly touching, and to be honest, nearly made me tear up.

Honorable Mentions for Season 2:

Sana and Chris playing a joke on the girls at the cabin during their break, because that whole episode was hilarious, and the individual ways each girl reacted was totally in character for each of them.

All of the girls telling Noora that they knew about her and William, because it was the most obvious thing in the world, and Noora being sheepish and surprised that she hadn't been hiding it as well as she thought.

Season 3:

1) Jonas, Magnus, and Mahdi telling Isak what to text Even:

This scene was so funny, and not the type I usually get to see when it comes to male friendships. I love that Isak tells them that he has no idea how to reply to Even, and Jonas tells him what he should say, with Magnus and Mahdi inserting their opinions and talking about how they text girls. It was enjoyable to watch because too many times fiction shows us that boys don't have the same relationship confusion that girls do, and it's often not true. I like that this scene allowed the boys to just be boys, because everybody deals with uncertainty, especially when it comes to liking someone.

2) Linn and Even playing video games together:

I know this scene is literally like two seconds and that we only see them ending from Isak's perspective, but hear me out. I'm pretty sure this is the first scene we see that shows Linn actively smiling and looking happy. Also, Even had just come off of a manic episode, was feeling depressed, and when we see him playing video games with Linn, he too looks actually happy, which is always great to see. Plus, the way Linn and Even are interacting with one another, it looks like they've known each other forever rather than two people who have just met, and even though it was a fraction of a scene, it was super great to watch.

Honorable Mentions for Season 3:

The entire development of Sana and Isak's friendship (I almost broke my "only two friendship moments" per season rule for this, but I decided to stick to my guns). Isak and Sana have a great friendship and I love how it came out of nowhere. Their friendship is literally started by being partnered together for school, which only happened because Sana sat by Isak to tell him that she had the weed he hid (a beautiful start to a beautiful friendship).

Isak coming out to Jonas by telling him that he liked someone and giving him the hint that it wasn't a girl, and Jonas reacting by thinking about the hint for a minute and then going "it's not me...is it?" because the expression Jonas had on his face while he thought about who it could be was funny because it looked like the fact that Isak had just come out to him wasn't even on his radar, because he was more concerned about guessing right, and the fact that he guessed himself was humorous to me.

Season 4:

1) Chris being a total ride-or-die friend to Sana after the stuff regarding the hate accounts for Sara and Vilde came out:

Everybody needs a friend like Chris. She is without a doubt one of the most loyal tv show characters I've seen and I wish Skam had run for more seasons so we could get a Chris season (and a Vilde season and an Even season, and a spin-off for Eskild and Linn, who both totally deserve one). Chris is the first person Sana told about the Sara account, and the first thing she did was tell Sana that the hate would blow over if Eva found out the truth (because Eva and everybody else thought Isak was responsible for it, and Eva was pissed AF at him). Chris also made sure that Sana knew that she didn't hate her for what happened, because everybody screwed up (seriously, we all need a friend like Chris).

2) The girls showing up to the bus meeting in their own tiny bus named "Los Losers" for Sana, effectively showing all of the Pepsi-Max girls (like Penetrator Chris, that will forever be their name) that if you mess with one of them, you mess with all of them. Sana was terrified that the girls would never forgive her, and when they all show up in the bus screaming her name, the joy on Sana's face is practically tangible. I love that they all pull Sana into the bus and give the Pepsi-Max girls the finger as they drive off, because really, what better way to show the true bonds of friendship than by collectively flipping off a ton of girls who messed with one of their own.

Honorable Mentions for Season 4:

Sana and Even's friendship, and the fact that she protected and respected his privacy when Isak asked her why she never said that she already knew Even, because too many times do I see characters give away information to other people that isn't theirs to give, and the fact that it didn't matter to Sana that Isak and Even were together, she was still going to make sure that Even had a right to the details of his personal life was extremely important.

The conversation between Sana and Jamilla about their schooling and Islam, because the texts we see between them prior to their falling out show that they were very close, and it was nice to see them talk and reconcile, because that's how life works sometimes. You fight and fall out with people, and after time passes, sometimes there is reconciliation.

[televinita]

Earlier this month dollsome posted a poll of some favorite TV shows, and there was a space to write in your own favorite, and I had an immediate crisis of conscience upon realizing I do not know anymore.

(this got kinda long)

In high school and for a few years after that the obvious answer was X-Files, but lol no to that; even if the revival hadn’t tainted it, it’s been handily surpassed by way too many better shows at this point.

Up until the early 2010s it was definitely a CBS procedural, probably one of the CSIs or maybe NCIS. Now the only ones that have a chance at that title are Criminal Minds* and maybe Numb3rs; the rest are all uniformly like “you want me to watch cases? about strangers? when I could instead just make the episodes 10 minutes long by reducing them to the important parts, i.e. regular-character personal moments??” (...I actually do still have pretty good memories of the cases on CSI: NY and Cold Case, but I digress)

*which I joined up with in season 8; still haven’t seen huuuuge swaths of the entire first half of the series

I guess I could say The Office, which is a rare blend of strong character/shipper moments and episodes I genuinely enjoy watching again in their entirety, but also, how can a sitcom (even a smart one) be my favorite show*?? (even though sitcoms make up the vast majority of “shows I can watch over and over,” I’ve ruled most of them out because Office is honestly one of the only ones where I have beloved characters, let alone ships. And my favorite show of all time HAS to come with an OTP, it just has to.)

*especially when I hate Michael Gary Scott with every fiber of my being, or at least 96% of them!

So now I’m like - oh god. Is it Glee? Maybe it’s Glee?? Has anything after that so thoroughly eaten my brain and made me happy watching both as whole episodes (season 666 not withstanding) and as short scene clips years after the fact, complete with fanfic consumption? But I am certainly too old for Glee to be my all-time favorite show, aren’t I? And/or too straight? How could my favorite show be one in which the heterosexual rep is less than 90% of the ships, and also not the best one.

Part of me genuinely thinks it could be Revolution, something smartly done but also action-packed that I have now watched 4 times in its entirety, and on which I have a top tier OTP to boot. Seems an odd choice for favorite, given that I don’t actually think I watch a lot of shows in this genre, but maybe? Same goes for Pushing Daisies.

Another part of me is in such a fannish fugue state right now that I’m like “OBVIOUSLY Blood and Treasure. OBVIOUSLY nothing has ever been better than this beautiful couple on this glorious cracky treasure-hunting ride,” but I’m too close to it right now to make a judgment call, given that I once had this same feeling about Zoo. (which was fun, mostly, but also no. definitely not my #1 fave. I haven’t watched so much as a scene clip since like, 2018)

Then there are a lot of single-season shows I loved, but single shows simply cannot be my favorite. No one remembers most of them, for one.

Maybe I would feel better if I made a top 10? Or if I listed my top 10 rewatchable sitcoms, deliberately excluded them, and then tried to list a top 10??

Spiraling!!

tl;dr SUPER JEALOUS RIGHT NOW OF ANYONE WHO KNOWS THEIR FAVORITE SHOW, OR EVEN TOP 3-5 SHOWS, OF ALL TIME.

p.s. I came across this lovely book in the library, What to Watch When: 1000 TV Shows For Every Mood and Moment, which very much impressed me with its organization, comprehensiveness and ability to deliver on the subtitle while spanning decades all the way up to 2020 -- and I gotta tell you that as much as I cherish this one’s content, I am also very tempted to write my own personalized version. I think that might be the only way I feel okay. “what if I told you my thousand favorite shows? *hands you a Tome*” 

[him-e]

what did you think of shadow and bone? have you read the books? i only read the duology

Thoughts on Shadow and Bone, now that you've probably seen it?

I think the show is alright? It lacks a real wow factor as far as I’m concerned, but it’s enjoyable. It’s especially enjoyable in those parts I didn’t anticipate to like / didn’t even know would be there. 

Whereas the main selling points leave a lot to be desired.

The good stuff: the visuals. The aesthetic. The overall concept. Production, casting and costumes are excellent, the setting is fascinating. The worldbuilding isn’t perfect and is sometimes confusing, which is probably due to the show jumping ahead of the books and introducing elements that happen much later in the book saga, but I’m loving the vague steampunk-y vibe of it mixed with more typical fantasy stuff and slavic-inspired lore, the fact that it’s set in dystopian Russia rather than your usual ye olde England.

I find it interesting that in this ‘verse the Grisha are simultaneously superstars, privileged elite, legendary creatures and despised outcasts, according to the context and the type of magic they wield. It’s A Lot, and so far it’s all a bit underdeveloped and messy, like a patchwork of different narratives and tropes sewn together without an organic worldbuilding structure. (there are hints to a past when they were hunted, but how did they go from that to being, essentially, an institutionalized asset to the government isn’t clear yet. There’s huge narrative potential in this, and I hope future seasons will delve into those aspects)

Many of the supporting characters are surprisingly solid. I appreciated that Genya and Zoya eventually sort of traded places, subverting the audience’s assumptions about them and their own character stereotypes, despite the little screentime they were given.

Breakout characters/ships for me were Nina/Matthias, and even more so the Crows, i.e. the stuff I didn’t see coming and knew nothing about (having only read the first book). (I thought the entire Crows subplot was handled in a somewhat convoluted way, at least in the first episodes; it was hard to keep track of who wanted Alina and why, but the Crows’ chemistry is so strong it carried the whole Plot B on its shoulders).

HELNIK. As an enemies to lovers dynamic, Helnik was SUPER on the nose, I’d say bordering on clichéd with the unapologetic, straight outta fanfiction use of classic tropes like “we need to team up to survive” and “there’s only one bed and we’ll freeze to death if we don’t take our conveniently damp clothes off and keep each other warm with the heat of our naked bodies” (not that I’m complaining, but i like to pine for my ships a bit before getting to the juicy tropetown part, tyvm). And then they’re suddenly on opposite sides again because of a tragic misunderstanding - does Bardugo hate high-conflict dynamics? It certainly seems so, because between Helnik and Darklina I’m starting to see a pattern where the slow burn and blossoming mutual trust is rushed and painted in broad, stereotypical strokes to get as fast as possible to the part where they *hate each other again* and that’s... huh. Something.

^That’s probably why I’m almost more interested in Kaz x Inej, because their relationship feels a bit more nuanced, a bit more mysterious, and a bit more unpredictable. (I didn’t bother spoiling myself about them, so I really don’t know where they’re going, but it’s refreshing to see a dynamic that the narrative isn’t scrambling to define in one direction or the other as quickly as possible)

-

Now, as for Darklina VS Malina... I found exactly what I expected. 

Both are ship dynamics I’m, on principle, very much into (light heroine/dark villain, pining friends to lovers) but both are also much less interesting than they claim to be, or could have been with different narrative choices. I’ll concede that the show characters are all more fleshed out and likable than their book counterparts, and the cringe parts I vaguely remembered from the books played out differently. And, well, Ben Barnes dominates the scene, he’s hot as HELL, literally every single second he’s on screen is a fuck you to Bardugo’s attempts to make his character lame and uninteresting and I’m LOVING it, lol.

But yeah, B Barnes aside, Darklina is intrinsically, deliberately made to be unshippable. 

It makes me mad, because it’s - archetypally speaking - made of shipping dynamite: yin/yang-sun and moon, opposites attract, COMPLEMENTARY POWERS AND SO ON. And what does Bardugo do with these ingredients? A FUCKING DELIBERATE DISASTER:

^ Placing the kiss so early on (season 1, episode five) effectively kills the romantic tension that was (correctly) building up until that point, and leaves the audience very little to still hope for, in terms of emotional evolution of the dynamic. 

Bardugo lays all the good stuff down as early and quickly as possible (the bonding, the conflicted attraction, the recognizing the other as one’s equal, etc) only to turn the tables and pull the rug so y’all sick creepyshippers won’t have anything to look forward to, because THEY’VE ALREADY HOOKED UP AND THAT BELONGS TO THE PAST, IT’S OVER, THEY’RE ENEMIES. This, combined to the fact that she falls for him *without* knowing who he really is, is the opposite of what I want from a heroine/villain ship (it’s basically lovers to enemies, and while that can be valid too, I wanted to see more pining and more prolonged, tormented symbolic attraction to the Shadow/Animus on Alina’s part). 

But here’s the trick: it’s not marketed as lovers to enemies - it has all the aesthetics and trappings of an enemies to lovers (the Darkling is, from the get go, villain-presenting, starting from his name), so it genuinely feels like a trollfic, or at the very least a cautionary tale *against* shipping the heroine with the tall dark brooding young villain, and I don’t think it’s cool at all. It makes the story WAY less interesting, because it humanizes the villain early on (when it’s not yet useful or poignant to the story, because it’s unearned) but it’s a red herring. The real plot twist is that the villain shouldn’t be sympathized with, just defeated: there’s a promise of nuanced storytelling, that is quickly denied and tossed aside. So is the idea of incorporating your Shadow (a notion that Bardugo must be familiar with, otherwise she wouldn’t have structured Alina and the Darkling as polar opposites who complement each other, but that she categorically refutes)

Then we have Malina. The good ship.

Look, I’m not that biased against it. I don’t want to be biased on principle against a friends to lovers dynamic that antagonizes a heroine/villain one, because every narrative is different, and for personal reasons I can deeply relate to the idea of being (unspeakably) in love with your best friend. So there are aspects of Malina that I can definitely be into, but it troubles me that in this specific context it’s framed as a regression. It’s Alina’s comfort zone, a fading dream of happiness from an idealized childhood, to sustain which the heroine systematically stunts her growth and literally repressed her own powers, something that in the books made her sickly and weak. But the narrative weirdly romanticizes this codependency, often making her tunnel vision re: going back to Mal her primary goal and centering on him her entire backstory/motivation, to the point that when she starts acting more serious re: her powers and alleged mission to destroy the Fold, it feels inorganic and unearned. 

Mal is intrinsically extraneous to Alina’s powers, he doesn’t share them, he doesn’t understand them, he has little to offer to help her with them, and so the feeling is that he’s also extraneous to her heroine’s journey, aside from being a sort of sidekick or safe harbor to eventually come back to. People have compared him to Raoul from Phantom of the Opera, and yeah, he has the same ~magic neutralizer~ vibe, tbh.

The narrative also polarizes Mal’s normalcy and relative “safety” against Aleksander’s sexy evil, framing Alina’s quasi-platonic fixation on the former as a better and purer form of love than her (much more visible and palpable) attraction to the latter. This is exacerbated by the show almost entirely relying on scenes of them as kids to convey their bond. I’m sure there are ways to depict innocent pining for your best friend that don’t involve obsessively focusing on flashbacks of two CHILDREN running in a meadow and looking exactly like brother and sister. LIKE. I get it, they’re like soulmates in every possible way, BUT DO THEY WANT TO KISS EACH OTHER?

Which brings me to a general complain: for a young adult saga centering on a young heroine and full of so many hot people, this story is weirdly unsexy? There are a lot of shippable dynamics, but they’re done in such a careless, ineffective way that makes ZERO EFFORT to work on stuff like slow burn, pining and romantic tension, and when it does it’s so heavy handed that the viewer doesn’t feel encouraged at all to fill the blanks with their imagination and start anticipating things (which is, imo, the ESSENCE of shipping). The one dynamic that got vaguely close to this is, again, Kaz and Inej, and coincidentally it’s also the one we didn’t get confirmed as romantic YET. Other than that, where’s the slow burn? What ship am I supposed to agonize over during the hiatus to season two? Has shipping become something to feel ashamed of, like an embarrassing relative you no longer want to invite in your home?

Anyway, back to Alina/Darkling/Mal, this is how the story reads to me:

girl suspects to be special, carefully pretends to be normal so she can stay with Good Boy

the girl’s powers eventually manifest; she’s forcibly separated from Good Boy

the girl’s powers attract Bad Boy who is her equal and opposite but is also a major asshole

girl initially falls for Bad Boy; has to learn a hard lesson that nobody that sexy will ever want her for who she is, he’s just trying to exploit her

also, no, there is no such thing as a Power Couple

girl is literally given a slave collar by Bad Boy through which he harnesses her power (a parody of the Twin Scars trope)

you know how the story initially suggested that the joint powers of Darkness and Light would defeat evil? LOL NO, Darkness is actually evil itself and the way you destroy evil is using Light to destroy Darkness, forget that whole Jungian bullshit of integrating your shadow, silly!

conclusion: girl realizes being special sucks. She was right all along! Hiding and suppressing her powers was the best choice! She goes back to the start, to the same Good Boy she was meekly pining for prior to the start of the story.

... there’s an uncomfortable overall subtext that reads a lot like a cautionary tale against - look, not just against darkships and villain/heroine pairings, but also *overpowered* heroines and, well... change? Growth?

Like, it’s certainly a Choice that Alina starts the story *already* in love with Mal. That she always knew it was him. The realization could have happened later (making the dynamic much more shippable, too), but no.